Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter

by J. Miller, Ayr | Category: Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter | Dec 1967

In Revelation 21 and 22 we come to the eternal state. Now we have before us a new heaven and a new earth. "New" here means "what was not before" (kainos). This fact is strengthened by the next statement, "For the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more". This is in agreement with what is said in 20.11, that from the face of the Lord who sat on the throne, "the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them". We might quote other scriptures which prove the same thing, that the present old and worn-out earth will be replaced by a new one, and the heaven likewise. John also sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. The same Greek word for new here (kainos) is also used of this Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven will be the centre of the service of the redeemed of mankind. This is shown in the words of verse 3:

"And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God."

This great voice contains an echo of the words of God relative to the tabernacle in the wilderness. That was but a small tabernacle; it was a sectional building suited to a pilgrim people, but the principles were the same.

One of the sweet and tender things about the eternal future for God's redeemed is contained in the words,

"And He [God] shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (kainos).

What a new condition of things these words reveal! No more death, tears, mourning, crying, pain, all gone like the cold mist of the morning before the warmth of the rising sun, and never to return. Have the redeemed not something to rejoice in anticipation of what is yet to be theirs?

"Why should His people then be sad? None have such reason to be glad,

As those redeemed to God."

He that sitteth on the throne, who is the Alpha and the Omega, tells John to write the words He speaks, for they are faithful and true, not like the words of men that are often spoken only to be broken. These are not words merely to buoy up the spirits of the sufferers and the martyrs, but are words that they can depend on. In divine purpose they are come to pass. God will give to all that are athirst freely of the fountain of the water of life, which proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (22.1). He that overcometh shall inherit these things. I take it that the overcomer here is the one who is the opposite of those mentioned in 21.8. The overcomer is the one that John describes in 1 John 5.5, "And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" Those of 21.8 who die in the states mentioned, the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, all these that died unrepentant, their part shall be in the lake of fire, which is the second death.

One of the angels who had the seven last plagues (15.1; 16.1) spoke to John to come and he would show him the Bride, the Lamb's wife, and he carried him in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed him the holy city Jerusalem (verse 2) coming down out of heaven from God. Then John says in detail what he saw of this city, the like of which was never seen by mortal eyes. It had the glory of God, its light was like a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels. Names were written on the gates of the twelve names of the tribes of Israel; three gates on each of the four sides, east, north, south, and west. The wall had twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel had a golden reed to measure the city, its gates or portals, and the wall thereof. The city is foursquare, the length, breadth, and height are equal, 12,000 furlongs (the Roman furlong was 2O1.45 yards, the English is 220 yards). According to English standard measure, the city is 1,500 miles in each dimension, and slightly different according to Roman measurement. But whatever measure we apply, the size of the city is tremendous, and it becomes more wonderful when we think of the materials used in its construction. The wall of the city is a hundred and forty four cubits, and here again we are told that it was the measure of a man, that is, of an angel, so that to know what the cubit of an angel is, is quite beyond our comprehension. Then we are told that the wall was of jasper, and the city itself was of pure gold, like unto glass. This kind of gold has never been seen on this earth, but this earth is not the universe, far less is it heaven. Then we are told that the twelve foundations were adorned with precious stones, but we are not told whether the list of the precious stones on the foundations begins at the top or at the bottom. It might well be that the topmost was jasper, seeing that the wall is built of jasper. The gates were each of one pearl. Natural pearls are produced through pain to the pearl oyster in its shell. Is this the lesson of the portals by which entrance to the city is gained, and the pain was to Him who made the way back to God? The street of the city is of pure gold, as it were transparent glass. The street is of the same material as the city itself. Then we are told by John that he saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. In this temple overcomers from this dispensation may be made pillars therein and such shall go out no more. They, besides having God's name and the Lord's new name written on them, may also have that of the New Jerusalem written on them (Revelation 3.12).

The city will have no need of the light of the sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God will lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. The nations (the A.V. says "of them which are saved") shall walk amidst (or through) the light thereof. These are persons from this earth who have known what it is to have had their names in the book of life, and have now been orderly constituted as nations under kings. These kings of the new earth will bring their glory into the city. The gates of the city shall in no wise be shut by day (for there shall be no night there). They shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it, but there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life.

We have in Revelation 21 three great groups of saved people, (1) those of the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, who are married to the Lamb prior to His coming to earth as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, for the deliverance of His people Israel and other sufferers at the hands of the beast, (2) the saved of the people of Israel, the names of whose tribes are on the gates or portals of the New Jerusalem, which is the wife of the Lamb, and (3) the saved persons of the nations who are constituted nations anew under kings in the new earth. Israel and the nations are ever seen as distinct in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament the saints of the Church which is Christ's Body are seen distinct from both, and that according to the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus.

We come now to Revelation 22, the last chapter of this wonderful book, the book that fittingly finds its place at the end of the book of God, the Bible. It deals with the last events on earth, and with the opening to our eyes of a new heaven and a new earth, and the New Jerusalem, and we here pass into an eternal order of things.

We are told that there will be no curse any longer, and what is said earlier, the throne of God and the Lamb shall be therein, and also that His servants shall do Him service; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads. The knowledge of this is comforting and a cause of joy and thankfulness. Night shall be no more and there will be no need of light of lamp or of sun, and they, I presume, God's servants, shall reign for ever and ever. As has been said in 21.5 already, these words are faithful and true, and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His servants the things that must shortly come to pass. He says, "I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book". Happy, indeed, will those be, despite the sufferings they may have to endure, and in many cases even be slain for their keeping the words of this prophecy. They shall reap the happiness of the martyrs.

John, who heard and saw these things, fell down to worship before the angel that showed him these things (He did so before at chapter 19.10), and he was told not to do it, but to worship God, for he was a fellow-slave with John, and with his brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of this book. John was told not to seal up the words of the prophecy of this book.

I judge that those of verse 14 are not the inhabitants or dwellers in the city, the Bride and wife of the Lamb, but they are such whose abode is outside, and the condition of such as may enter the city is "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city".

The most severe penalties are pronounced on anyone who adds to what is written in this book, and such as take away from the words of the book God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city which are written in this book. I do not think or believe that this can happen to any of the saints of the Bride of the Lamb. The book will have a special significance and a very important place in the lives of such as live in the last of the seventy weeks of years of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9. The Lord who testified these things says again, "Yea, I come quickly", and John responds, "Amen: come, Lord Jesus". "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen."

J. Miller, Ayr | Dec 1967
Things Which Must Come To Pass Hereafter